The technical field of this invention relates to methods and compositions for the regeneration of muscle tissue. The invention also relates to constructs containing muscle tissue.
Reconstruction of skeletal muscle tissue lost by traumatic injury, tumor excision or ablation, or functional damage is hindered by the lack of available functional muscle tissue or muscle tissue substitutes. Autografts have been used clinically but require the presence of sufficient donor muscle tissue nearby and can leave muscle defects at the donor site. Herter et al., (J. Plast Reconstr. Aesthetic Surgery 60, 760-768 (2007)) provides an analysis of the various locations providing donor tissue and the benefits and disadvantages of these techniques.
Current methods for muscle regeneration without grafts rely primarily on muscle cell or fiber isolation and expansion through tissue culture in vitro. These cells or fibers are used for either injection therapy or engineering muscle tissue using scaffolds to achieve muscle function. These processes require cell manipulation and lengthy time before they can be used for therapy. Additionally, when the cells or long fibers are injected directly into the muscle, the method is limited by the difficulty in controlling orientation of cells or fibers and low survivability due to delay in vascular and neural integration. Thus, there exists a need for better methods for regenerating muscle in regions in need of repair, either via injection or implantation, so that the transplant can integrate readily with host vascular and neural networks and produce viable muscle.